Hundreds – soon to be thousands – of public schools around the country are using the active video game Dance, Dance Revolution in Physical Education classes to get kids moving.

And the kids are eating it up. Why?

Children don’t often yell in excitement when they are let into class, but as the doors opened to the upper level of the gym at South Middle School here one recent Monday, the assembled students let out a chorus of shrieks.

In they rushed, past the Ping-Pong table, past the balance beams and the wrestling mats stacked unused. They sprinted past the ghosts of Gym Class Past toward two TV sets looming over square plastic mats on the floor. In less than a minute a dozen seventh graders were dancing in furiously kinetic union to the thumps of a techno song called “Speed Over Beethoven.”

Bill Hines, a physical education teacher at the school for 27 years, shook his head a little, smiled and said, “I’ll tell you one thing: they don’t run in here like that for basketball.”1

My initial reaction is: Duh.

P.E. was a combination of embarrassment, awkwardness, boredom and humiliation.

As a child, my experience with P.E. was a combination of embarrassment, awkwardness, boredom and humiliation.  Traditional Phys-Ed revolves around structured activities that are either competitive, “educational”, or both.  For example, dodge ball, baseball, kickball, crab-ball, basketball, etc.

How are they embarrassing?  HELLO!  Don’t you remember getting picked for teams?  I wasn’t always picked last, but no one was fighting to have me on their team.

Awkward?  Yep, for me, I was not a “natural athlete.”  I didn’t come out onto the field with innate coordination and skills.  I had to learn them my own way.  Eventually, I developed pretty good skills at Racquetball, golf and tennis.  Notice that those are NOT team sports?  That leads me back to boredom and humiliation.

For any Attention Deficit child, traditional PE activities are boring.

For my, and I think for any Attention Deficit child (ADD, ADHD, whatever), traditional PE activities are boring as standing in a hot field waiting for someone else to swing a wooden stick at a little ball on the off chance that it might come my way.  I mean, where is the stimulation?  Compare even Pac-Man against waiting in line for your turn at ONE KICK in kickball, and it is obvious why kids prefer video games!

Now to humiliation.  Yeah, there’s always that picked last phenomenon.  Harbor no illusions that the anxiety around being picked last is reserved for the bottom three or four kids.  Only the natural athletes, the kids everyone knows will be picked just about first, are exempt.  Everyone else worries about it.

But getting on the team doesn’t make you safe…now it’s worse!  Every aspect of your performance will be analyzed by your team AND the opposing team.  No mistake will be forgotten; they need to know so that next time they WILL pick you last!

So, I’m glad to hear that schools are only twenty years behind the times at making fitness interesting.  P.E. classes aren’t the end-all, be-all when it comes to obesity prevention, but they can make a difference.

Good Luck,

Allen

From NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/health/30exer.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Good news for anyone worried about the financial future of a child with a Learning Disability (LD). Research shows that intelligence, as measured by IQ, is not a strong indicator of wealth. In fact, “smart” people often have financial troubles that include not paying bills on time and failure to save money. It appears that diligence and consistency are more important for building wealth, as opposed to just a big paycheck.

Link: http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070424_rich_smart.html

Here at Sparks Of Genius, we’ve always stressed that traditional IQ is not an adequate measure of human ability. Our 9-5-4 Program is all about training 9 Intelligences, 5 Cognitive Skills and 4 Executive Functions are 9 Intelligences: Verbal, Mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Spiritual and Naturalist. Schools only care about one or two; Sparks of Genius taps into all 9.

Increase three or more [Cognitive Skills] and you’ve got a Total Transformation.

There are 5 Cognitive Skills: Attention, Memory, Learning, Thinking and Processing Speed. Increase one of these, and you increase cognitive ability. Increase three or more and you’ve got a Total Transformation.

Finally, there are 4 Executive Functions: Organization, Planning, Prioritizing, and Decision-Making. These are higher-order functions and essential for long-term success.

Students come to us, go through fancy, high-tech evaluations, and Dr. Kessler puts together a customized work-out regimen that plays on the student’s strengths and pumps up the areas that are weakest. 2-3 hours per week on a home computer, plus an hour in our high-tech, high-touch playground is usually all it takes. The results last, and they generalize to school, athletics, home, and the social realm.

I did promise some kitties. Here they are, courtesy of http://icanhascheezburger.com/

If you are the parent of a challenged child, this is your wake-up call:

If you are not focusing significant efforts on your challenged child’s social skills, you are failing that child.

In case anyone misunderstood, let me rephrase this:

Social skills are the number one need of challenged children.*

It is a mistake to spend thousands of dollars on private tutors and special programs so that a challenged child can get through school at the expense of social development. If your child cannot make friends, cannot communicate effectively, cannot ask for help, does not know when to listen and when to talk, then all the classical education in the world will not help him or her lead an independent life.

How many friends does your challenged child have? Friends at school don’t count. How many friends does he or she see outside of school on a stricty social basis? If there answer is none, you must take action!

Here are some links to helpful tools that you can use. Don’t make the mistake I see parents making every day: they will spare no expense to make sure that their child can pass school, or to address behavioral problems, but they won’t spend one thin dime to make sure he or she can make friends.

• http://www.addvance.com/help/parents/social_skills.html
• http://www.ricklavoie.com/videos.html
• http://www.addinschool.com/elementary/socialskills.htm
• http://www.comeunity.com/disability/adhd/adhd-socialskills.html
• http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/social.html
• http://www.modelmekids.com/

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin

Here’s some rubies of wisdom for all parents, and teachers too. Kids can be challenging, kids with ADHD can be mini-hurricanes, but an adult with a pack full of disciplining tools can make a huge difference.

When children break posted classroom rules, remain calm, state infraction of rule, and don’t debate. It is important to have pre-established consequences for misbehavior. Administer consequences immediately and monitor proper behavior frequently. Praise specific behaviors. Avoid non-specific praise statements. Enforce the rules of the classroom consistently. Avoid “getting personal” with the Attention Deficit child after poor behavior. Avoid ridicule and criticism. Remember, ADD children have difficulty staying in control. Teach the child to reward him/herself. Encourage positive “self-talk,” i.e., “You did very well remaining in your seat today. Don’t you feel proud!” This encourages the child to think positively about him/herself.

Don’t underestimate the power in that passage from http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/attention-deficit-disorder/special-education-lesson-plans.html

There is enough in there to save the sanity of an entire family. Let’s break it down and perform what Rick Lavoie would call an autopsy.

When children break posted classroom (or household) rules, remain calm, state infraction of rule, and don’t debate.

This tenet can save you many headaches.

• “posted classroom or household rules”- Children and adults, especially those with ADD, ADHD, or learning disabilities need reminders. Posting the rules enables them to remind themselves. Great locations are the fridge, bathroom mirror, front door, and wherever the rule applies (like “Wipe crumbs off counter” in the kitchen).
• “remain calm” – No yelling, no screaming, no huffing and puffing. Why? Kids will intentionally misbehave if they know that they can push your buttons. If you get upset, they win. Kids who feel neglected (even if it isn’t true), will act out in order to get an emotional response from the parent. Giving them an emotional response reinforces the misbehavior.
• “state infraction of rule” – They may not realize what they did wrong and they need to see that the consequences are objective, fair and not arbitrarily being doled out because mom is in a bad mood today.
• “don’t debate” – If you debate you are engaging the child and reinforcing misbehavior. It sends the message: “If you are bad, I will pay attention to you.” The odds are good that your kids feel starved for attention. Give them some! Yes, I know you are starved for time. That’s life!

It is important to have pre-established consequences for misbehavior. Administer consequences immediately and monitor proper behavior frequently.

• “have pre-established consequences” – Nobody likes surprises, especially challenged children. Letting them know up front what will happen lets them absorb that into their thinking so that, hopefully, they will be deterred. The idea isn’t to catch kids messing up and then punish them. The idea is to set clear consequences so that kids will choose proper behavior!
• “administer consequences immediately” – This is classical conditioning. You have to have the consequences delivered as close to immediately as possible in order to get maximum effectiveness. Punishing 24 hours later does not create the subconscious link between behavior and deterrent needed for effective discipline. Kids are notoriously rotten at making conscious choices in their behavior. They rely primarily on the subconscious. You will achieve better results by disciplining them on that level and to do so requires you to administer consequences immediately.
• “monitor proper behavior frequently” – Sporadic discipline is as ineffective as sporadic exercise. Consistency is the key! If a kid breaks a rule once, and nothing happens, he raises an eyebrow. If he breaks a rule three times and nothing happens, he raises hell!

Praise specific behaviors. Avoid non-specific praise statements.

• “Praise specific behaviors.” – If you like what they are doing, you need to be clear about what you like. Do you like that they are putting away their toys, or that they did so without being asked to? The kid can’t tell unless you tell him. Do you like that they got an “A” or that they studied for the exam? Be careful what you praise for: there are some dangers to praise that are addressed here.

Enforce the rules of the classroom consistently.

• Kids with ADD or ADHD or LD never try to walk through walls, but they’ll walk all over parents and teachers. Why? Because the wall is always solid, it is consistent, and parents and teachers are inconsistent. If they think they can get away with something, they will try. Be consistent like the wall, and you won’t feel like beating your head against one.

Avoid “getting personal” with the ADD child after poor behavior.

• I say this applies to all children, and especially with the ADD or Learning Disabled child. By getting personal, you have shifted focus from the behavior to the person. It changes discipline from, “this is what you did wrong” to “this is why you are bad.” This shames the child, which is unnecessary, hurtful, and ineffective.
• For the challenged child, such criticism is especially harsh, since the child had a condition that makes it impossible for him or her to completely control their actions. We don’t tell people who need crutches that they are bad because they don’t walk fast enough. Likewise, lets not tell children that they are bad when they have a condition that to some degree causes them to misbehave.

Avoid ridicule and criticism.

• Again, I think that this applies to all children, and especially to challenged children. Parents and teachers are tasked with training children, teaching them the skills needed for a happy life. Correcting a mistake does this. Ridicule and criticism do not; instead they teach the child that there is something wrong with them.

Remember, ADD children have difficulty staying in control.

• It is unfair and unrealistic to expect 100% compliance from an ADD child. Put perfection out of your mind. Praise improvement. Praise performance. Handle mistakes for what they are: mistakes. Everyone makes them.

Teach the child to reward him/herself. Encourage positive “self-talk,” i.e., “You did very well remaining in your seat today. Don’t you feel proud!”

• This is important and one of the challenges in my work with challenged children. Early on, it is easy to obtain compliance through rewards, especially for children who are subject to a disproportionate amount of punishment in the name of discipline. However, if a child is motivated merely by the prospect of reward, then that is the mode they will internalize. People obtain far more in life when they are instrinsically motivated, such as by feelings of accomplishment, satisfaction, pride, and challenge. Studies even show that if a child is intrinsically motivated to, say, learn to play guitar, but then parents offer a reward for practising, then the child’s intrinsic motivation will whither away and they will stop practising without the reward!
• Encouraging positive self-talk is an effective technique to train children to tap into their intrinsic motivation to stay on task and use self-discipline.

That’s all for now. These are great tools for any parent or educator. Good luck!

-Allen Dobkin

Remember those achievement tests you took in Elementary School? Well…

It turns out that those achievement tests you took in elementary school may have a lot to do with where you are right now. Researchers gave I.Q. tests to adults in their mid-40s and compared each person’s score to their elementary school achievement test scores. Over 40% of their I.Q. scores could be accounted for the achievement tests. That is a high correlation.

But wait, there’s more.

IQ and achievement test scores also predicted income, occupational status and the education level of these 40-somethings.

The livescience.com report (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070416_achievement_iq.html) raises an important issue, namely how school influences accomplishment. “People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages,” said Douglas Detterman, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. “It means we don’t know very much about education and optimizing education for particular individuals.”

Say that again, please. “It means we don’t know very much about education and optimizing education for particular individuals.” Wow, that’s a mouthful.

So here’s today’s True-False question for you. “Optimizing learning for each student is what education should be all about.” True or false?

The multiple intelligence model encourages and even demands that we begin the task of learning optimization for each student.

I say “True.” The multiple intelligence model encourages and even demands that we begin the task of learning optimization for each student.

As Dr. Dettermen says, “People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages.” I remember reading The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home by Jonathan Kozol many years ago. The theme was that the education system indoctrinates students with myths, ideologies and lies and turns out not good, ethical people but good citizens.

“People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages.”

Well, for so many students currently attending school, that night is still dark and they are far away from ever purchasing or even renting their own home.

Parents bring their elementary school students to Sparks of Genius http://www.sparksofgenius.com with labels like ADD, LD, ADHD and PDD. We focus on identifying and nurturing the many ways they are smart. Students get lots of attention training and cognitive training. They also learn to be more responsible for their learning. To defy labels. To move beyond limitations set by others.

The education system indoctrinates students with myths, ideologies and lies and turns out not good, ethical people but good citizens.

The noted pediatrician and my mentor, William Crook, told me the key to helping students become more successful is “psychological vitamins.” This was 35 years ago and he was right. Achievement tests do not make kids happy. I.Q. scores do not make kids happy. Labels do not make kids happy. Igniting their sparks of genius makes kids happy.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

I am often asked about multiple intelligences, and how many there really are. I have no idea. The reason for adding a ninth intelligence now is because I have decided to combine two of Dr. Howard Gardner’s “candidate intelligences” – Existential and Moral- into a 9th intelligence, which is Spiritual Intelligence or “soul smarts.”

Look at today’s headlines and the one thing that stands out is the arrogance of prominent adults.

Why? Look at today’s headlines and the one thing that stands out is the arrogance of prominent adults. Today it’s Don Imus and Paul Wolfowitz. What do they value?

What if the fundamental purpose of education was to teach students to continually refine…their character?

I have been in the education business much of my life. What if schools made it their mission not to domesticate students but to inform and enlighten them. What if the fundamental purpose of education was to teach students to continually refine and upgrade their character; to become a mensch, a real human being?

Wikipedia defines a mensch as “a particularly good person, like “a stand-up guy,” a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague.” Link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch.

“The three foundations of menschhood are helping lots of people, doing what’s right, and paying back society….” -Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start

Menschhood is so important a quality that Guy Kawasaki devotes an entire chapter to it in his classic “The Art of the Start.” Guy writes that “The three foundations of menschhood are helping lots of people, doing what’s right, and paying back society—simple concepts that are hard to implement.” Link is http://www.guykawasaki.com/

At Sparks of Genius we strive to help all our students (ages 6-82) identify and nurture their sparks of genius. The multiple intelligence model helps us to do that, as does the Multiple Intelligence Developmental Assessment Scale (MIDAS) developed by Dr. Branton Shearer. Link is http://miresearch.org/.

But there are only 8 intelligences there now, and we need the ninth – to become more soul smart. Part of spirituality, the 9th intelligence, includes character refinement —becoming more a more compassionate, responsible, joyful, grateful and giving human being.

At Sparks of Genius we’re in the learning achievement business and fully committed to helping our students (ages 6-82) becoming fully human. The 9th intelligence is an important part of the 9-5-4 equation. Link is http://sparksofgenius.wordpress.com/2007/02/07/what-is-the-sparks-of-genius-9-5-4-program/

This week’s headlines feature Don Imus and Paul Wolfowitz. Who will it be next week? One thing is for sure: arrogance will part of the picture.

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

You can improve your mood by playing in the dirt with friends, as long as your friends are Mycobacterium vaccae a harmless soil microbe. A new study shows that exposure to the bacteria helps stimulate serotonin in the brain, which elevates mood. Link: http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070411_happy_bacteria.html

Here is one more reason not to overlook the Naturalist Intelligence.

It also helps explain some of my wife’s interesting behavior. She hates city life and loves nature. As a high-school biology teacher, she comes home packed full of stress. Then she’ll sit on the grass for half an hour with our dog and cat and feel better. Turns out the dirt makes her happy. Go figure.

Just like rolling in the dirt, carbs increase serotonin.

She’s also a carb-junkie, to the extent that on some nights she’ll eat cookies or Cheezits for dinner. Just like rolling in the dirt, carbs increase serotonin. I’m picking up on a pattern here.

Learning about plants and animals in their natural environment is good and—literally–makes you feel good, too.

So for you parents out there whose children are plunked down in front of a computer, TV set, homework or X-Box 360, the take home message is: kick them out on the lawn! Make it a priority to put some time into their Naturalist Intelligence. Learning about plants and animals in their natural environment is good and—literally–makes you feel good, too.

Two elderly women have played bridge together for many years, and naturally, they have gotten to know each other pretty well.

One day, during a game of cards, one lady suddenly looks up at the other and says, “I realize we’ve known each other for many years, but for the life of me, I just can’t bring it to mind … would you please tell me your name again, dear?”

There is dead silence for a couple of minutes, and then the other lady responds, “How soon do you need to know?”

Moral of the story: Take your time, make your best effort, and smile.

Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich informs us that memory becomes less stable with age because 1) we’re no longer doing activities we previously did to keep ourselves mentally sharp and 2) all of our brain operations become slower and slower.

It is possible to train your brain for success.

At Sparks of Genius, everyone “works out” with a Personal Trainer. Everyone learns to maximize several of their intelligences. It is important that everyone love learning and be happy while learning.

It is possible to train your brain for success. With consistent training, various computer programs can help children, adults and seniors to improve attention, memory, listening and central processing speed of the brain.

Adults and seniors need to reach beyond and master something new.

A “roll with the punches” attitude will not work. Our Sages teach us that “A happy person can learn more in one hour than a depressed person can learn in many hours.”

It is important for all of us to know that we can train our brain for success. Attitude is important. I leave you with the following story.

“When I moved to Florida, I became friends with an elderly woman who was very active, kind, and strong. She was doing something all the time, but not busy just to be busy.

One day after as especially busy day, she came home exhausted and was rocking on her porch when I arrived. I said to her something like “Maybe you overdid it today.”

She replied without missing a beat. “Honey, I would rather wear out than rust out.”

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

News Item: “The Israeli Brain Vitamin”

“Americans looking for a natural way to improve memory and mood now have a powerful tool at their disposal. The FDA has authorized an Israeli-made product called Lipogen to be used as a food additive.”

Link: http://israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1598&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Health&

What? Another natural that improves brain functioning children and adults? It’s phosphatidylserine (PS), which regulates neuronal signaling. Found in fish, green leafy vegetables, soybeans and rice, PS reportedly improves both memory and mood and delays symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Is there research to substantiate this claim? A few places to get started include:

http://www.vrp.com/art/1765.asp?c=1172003763453&k=/det/2193.asp&m=/&p=no&s=0http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/feb2007_report_cognitex_02.htm

Is it safe? “Although phosphatidylserine is generally safe and well tolerated, it may increase the blood-thinning effect of heparin, and therefore should not be used with medications that thin the blood without consulting a physician.”

Of course, the main momentum today is the pharmaceutical industry’s drive to discover and market new drugs to solve this problem. There are now over 5,000,000 American’s with Alzheimer’s disease. Almost 8 million are expected to have the disease by 2030, and by 2050, the number could reach 16 million.

But there may be another way, and that is through learning. Learning?

To give you some more food for thought, what do you think of the idea that learning may act as a potential vaccination against late-life neurodegenerative diseases of the brain? Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in aging, has proposed this very idea.

In other words, learning is actually a health-promoting behavior!

Ideally the” learning vaccine” should start in early childhood via learning how to learn and developing a passionate love of learning, and continue throughout the lifespan.

The good news is that there is software that trains the cognitive skills essential for learning, such as attention span, memory, and central processing speed of the brain.

At Sparks of Genius, children as young as six and adults in their Eighties can strengthen their cognitive skills by working out” two to three hours a week on a home computer.

Dr. Joseph Sandford, developer of some of the software, explains that computerized cognitive training programs provide an enriched learning environment to physically promote brain health. Medication, he suggests, is like putting a CD disk into the computer (the brain). So long as the disk is in, the drug may help, but eject the disk and the effect is gone. And, there are always the side-effects, right?

Can a brain vitamin pill be part of the solution? The company claims research showing significant memory and mental improvements in comparison to the placebo groups. There is also evidence that dietary supplementation with PS can play a vital role in supporting human cognitive functions as we age. Among the numerous studies conducted with PS, most were concerned with subjects already experiencing noticeable declines in judgment, abstract thought, memory, behavior, and personality.”

We owe it to the 5,000,000 plus with Alzheimer’s disease, the boomers behind them and to the generations behind them to look for all possible solutions to preventing dementias

Learning, especially enriched learning and cognitive training, merits much more consideration and research. Who knows, perhaps learning is not only health promoting but also a potential vaccination against late-life neurodegenerative diseases of the brain. Wouldn’t that be something!

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

As if we don’t already know that we’re fat, here comes another obesity study. The twist on this one is that the morbidly obese category is the fastest-growing (no pun intended) segment.

http://www.livescience.com/healthday/603539.html

This article is not about being fat!

This is an important issue because, while good health won’t magically fix symptoms of ADD, ADHD or Learning Disabilities, poor health will certainly make the symptoms worse. For example, an overweight child comes home from school and is tired, so he drinks 4 Vault Energy drinks and stays up until 2 in the morning. The next day, he sleeps in class. Rinse and repeat. It doesn’t even matter if he has any learning issues—this is enough to lower grades.

What is the solution to American (un)Fitness?

The good news is that there is one generic solution that always works for everybody: exercise! No, I am not saying that everyone will lose weight or will have equal benefits, or even that they have equal access and ability to exercise. I am saying that the benefits of exercise are so outrageously good that you owe it to yourself and your family to make fitness a priority.

Here are just a few benefits of exercise (from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/HQ01676):

1. End panting and wheezing when you go up a flight of stairs, also known as, strengthen your cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
2. Ease depression and manage pain and stress – we have way too much of this. Get it out on the treadmill, nature walks, tennis courts, swimming pools, wherever!
3. Manage your weight! Carrying around 30-50 pounds of fat is exhausting.
4. Keep bones and muscles strong, so they don’t break when you get old.
5. Prevent and manage diabetes without pills, the All-Natural Way!
6. Reduce your risk of certain types of cancer
7. Sleep better.

The bottom line is that if you or your child have challenges in focus, attention, memory and academics, you can make strides by…well, making strides.

I also want to add some of my own:

1. Be more focused.
2. Improve memory.
3. Improve academic performance.
4. Increased attention.

The bottom line is that if you or your child have challenges in focus, attention, memory and academics, you can make strides by…well, making strides. Students with high kinesthetic intelligence benefit even more.

So how do we collectively get off our duffs after a lifetime of TV, Video Games and Computers?

That’s where the Summer of Fitness comes in. If you’re not a parent, that’s OK. If you are a parent, or a teacher, summer is the perfect time to pull out all the stops and make exercise a fun part of your life.

Start NOW. Have the kids make a poster that says, “Summer of Fitness 2007”
and put it up in the living room (over the TV?).

Buy everyone a new pair of shorts and sneakers. Sit down with the family and come up with 10, 20, 50 activities that you can do together: tennis, nature walks, lift weights, jogging, Frisbee, Ultimate Frisbee, golf, swimming, SCUBA diving, you name it!

Everyone has to start walking now: you have to be ready for the Summer of Fitness. You can’t dive in cold! Talk it up. Make it fun. When summer arrives, do one activity EVERY DAY. If you are planning anything intense or potentially risky, consult your physician.

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin